Josh and Gabe are dispatched to Yorktown, Va. To exfiltrate an eccentric British inventor holding secrets useful to the Patriot cause, but must also deal with the complications of his daughter and her fiance.
This is round 2 of DB's Season 6 Revolutionary War doubleheader, and is mostly played as a proto-version of "Blackadder." Laurie Main, who specialized in 1960's high-voiced portrayals of over/the-top British toffs, is the nutty professor. TV everygirl Gail Kobe throws everything she has into her spitfire role, and Ian Ireland of Canadian TV is her foppish officer fiance. Isabel Sanford deploys the same genial comedy presence enjoyed on "The Jeffersons" as a maid.
Nothing too serious attempted here except the Mutt and Jeff antics of Jimmy Dean and Rosey Grier; again this might have been a spinoff tryout. Fess Parker is in only the opening and closing.
History is of the sketch comedy variety here; the episode is dated as being in July 1781, and the British had occupied Yorktown by then. Main's character is said to know the keys to capturing "Fort Tawney," which is blocking French Gen. Rochambeau's route to join Washington for the siege - entirely fabricated. The hour's common thread is the Yorktown siege, but no attempt to show Washington, Cornwallis, or battle action. The Shawnee are mercifully left alone this hour, but improbably the British have Iroquois allies in Virginia. Stereotypically played in a manner that would have embarrassed " F-Troop," for some reason the war party leader (Michael Keep) is titled as "Magua" from "Last of the Mohicans."
Redcoat report: About 15, all uniformed in the red and blue of the Royal American Regiment, and its farewell here to the lobsterbacks in DB.
French facts: For the only time in the series we see French troops supporting the Patriot cause, and we see Rochambeau on screen. Granted its a comedy portrayal by "Get Smart" regular Max Frank, and he is wearing a concocted butternut and blue uniform, but he commands a retinue of two soldiers accurately rendered as the Armagnac Regiment, which did make it to the 1780 battles in Georgia.
Once the viewer accepts this is going to be a just-for-laughs hour, a fair amount of fun can be had here. But a series finale culminating in the surrender of Cornwallis might have been well done.
This is round 2 of DB's Season 6 Revolutionary War doubleheader, and is mostly played as a proto-version of "Blackadder." Laurie Main, who specialized in 1960's high-voiced portrayals of over/the-top British toffs, is the nutty professor. TV everygirl Gail Kobe throws everything she has into her spitfire role, and Ian Ireland of Canadian TV is her foppish officer fiance. Isabel Sanford deploys the same genial comedy presence enjoyed on "The Jeffersons" as a maid.
Nothing too serious attempted here except the Mutt and Jeff antics of Jimmy Dean and Rosey Grier; again this might have been a spinoff tryout. Fess Parker is in only the opening and closing.
History is of the sketch comedy variety here; the episode is dated as being in July 1781, and the British had occupied Yorktown by then. Main's character is said to know the keys to capturing "Fort Tawney," which is blocking French Gen. Rochambeau's route to join Washington for the siege - entirely fabricated. The hour's common thread is the Yorktown siege, but no attempt to show Washington, Cornwallis, or battle action. The Shawnee are mercifully left alone this hour, but improbably the British have Iroquois allies in Virginia. Stereotypically played in a manner that would have embarrassed " F-Troop," for some reason the war party leader (Michael Keep) is titled as "Magua" from "Last of the Mohicans."
Redcoat report: About 15, all uniformed in the red and blue of the Royal American Regiment, and its farewell here to the lobsterbacks in DB.
French facts: For the only time in the series we see French troops supporting the Patriot cause, and we see Rochambeau on screen. Granted its a comedy portrayal by "Get Smart" regular Max Frank, and he is wearing a concocted butternut and blue uniform, but he commands a retinue of two soldiers accurately rendered as the Armagnac Regiment, which did make it to the 1780 battles in Georgia.
Once the viewer accepts this is going to be a just-for-laughs hour, a fair amount of fun can be had here. But a series finale culminating in the surrender of Cornwallis might have been well done.
